Viewer Reactions
by foggi
Summary: After "Get It Done" the gang reacts to the argument between Buffy and Spike and its implications.


**Viewer Reactions**   
  
author: foggi   
feedback: yes, L@spookysand.com   
rating: PG   
type: S/B   
summary: After "Get It Done" the gang reacts to the argument between Buffy and Spike and its implications.   
disclaimer: Everything belongs to Joss, Fox and ME.   
  
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"It's what you wanted?"   
  
"What?"   
  
Dawn asked her sister again. "Tonight. When you and Spike were fighting. He said that the soul was for you. What you wanted. Was it?"   
  
"Dawn, don't do this to me right now. I'm busy." And she was busy. Busy cleaning up all of the potential slayer's junk and doing laundry and making beds...and getting thrown into a portal and almost demonized. Busy as hell.   
  
"You're always busy. You've spent every waking second cleaning and fighting and instructing. You must be having a blast."   
  
"What is that supposed to mean? You think this is fun? Because-"   
  
"You get to avoid all of your personal problems?"   
  
"Dawn, that's ridiculous."   
  
"I mean, things calmed down for a while there. The First was leaving us alone, and the first thing you do is go on a date with the principal."   
  
"What's wrong with that?"   
  
"You don't have feelings for him."   
  
"No, not yet. But who's to stop me if I start to."   
  
"That's crap, Buffy."   
  
"Why?"   
  
"Because you have feelings for Spike."   
  
"No. No, I don't."   
  
"You know, Buffy, for a long time I thought that you should stay away from him. What with the whole attempted rape mess. But there's more to it than that, isn't there? The way you to argued tonight. Everyone could see it."   
  
"Well, everyone is wrong then. I was mad at him. And he deserved it, too. He's been such a wimp. Stupid soul."   
  
"God, Buffy!"   
  
"God what?!?"   
  
"He said tonight that he got the soul for you. That it's what you wanted. How dare you yell at him?"   
  
"I did NOT ask him to get the damn soul, Dawnie. He did it of his own free will."   
  
"For you. Because the guy is head over heels in love with you." Dawn waited a moment before she spat out what she had really wanted to say. "I think you're just angry at him, because now there's no good excuse to not be with him. Now he's not the one with the problem. You are." With that, Dawn left a madly pissed off Buffy in the upstairs hallway. But she left knowing that everything she said was true. It was about damn time Buffy figured her own life out. Buffy had told everyone else what they should be doing during this "war", she might as well get a lecture too.   
  
***********************************************   
  
Willow swung her legs absently under the a stool in the kitchen. Thank god for the new microwave. Popcorn was her new companion for the evening. She figured that she couldn't magically drain power from popcorn. Meant that the friendship would last a little longer.   
  
"Mmm, popcorn-y goodness!" Xander took the seat next to Willow.   
  
"Yup. Yummy." Willow added tiredly.   
  
"You okay? It's been a long couple of days for my best witchy pal."   
  
"Yup. Tired though." Short sentences were best tonight. It seemed that lately, the less she talked, the less likely she would have any kind of mental breakdown. Lord knows that was the last thing anyone needed.   
  
"Buffy was pretty rough on you."   
  
"No. She's had it worse than all of us." She thought of the vision Buffy told her about. Uberville, California sounded quite unappealing. Poor Buffy. Poor Sunnydale.   
  
"I guess you're right. Still, she's been awfully hard on everyone lately."   
  
"She didn't say anything much to you." She hoped that he would let it go. Despite her love of Xander, she and the popcorn could use some quiet time.   
  
"No. Nothing to me. Mostly just to the females of the operation....And Spike." Spike. Xander wondered how the vampire had become such a regular topic of conversation and concern around the household. He also wondered how he was usually on the concerned side of the conversation. Funny how things change.   
  
"He did kill the demon."   
  
"Of course he did. She hurt his feelings though. Not that I care, understand-"   
  
Willow quirked an eyebrow.   
  
Off her look, Xander continued, "It's just that he's been through so much. I do feel bad for the guy. And, as much as it pains me to say this, he really does love Buffy. And she's carting that principal around like she's got a new toy."   
  
"A new toy that she's *pretending* to be attracted to?" Willow figured if Xander wanted to have this conversation, she might as well get into it. She'd been thinking on it a lot lately.   
  
"You think?"   
  
"I know. She's worried that everyone here thinks she's 'still in love with Spike,' hence the frantic search for someone non-demony to date."   
  
"So, what's your vote?" He asked.   
  
"I'm going for 'still.'"   
  
"Same here."   
  
"I think she knows it too. Maybe that's why she's yelling at him. That's really her flirting style, you know."   
  
"Mm. I could see it when she brought him back from the First's torture land. Don't know how I missed it before." Xander tried to sound as unhappy about this as possible. But, he'd realized over time that if anyone was going to end up with Buffy, it would have to be Spike. Sometimes a relationship holds too much passion, good or bad, to be let go of.   
  
"So. You think she'll ever tell him."   
  
"No."   
  
"Me either." Willow sighed.   
  
"I think she'll bitch at him and make him crazy instead. And, as much as I hate the idea of them together, something tells me that she needs him. Watching them fight in front of everyone tonight...it's pretty obvious that more happened last year than we've been let in on."   
  
********************************************   
  
Spike sat on the couch in the living room, flipping through the channels to the dismay of many tiny girls who wanted to watch music videos. He thought for a second about giving them all a good lecture on real music, but Buffy had lectured them enough.   
  
And there she was, on the stairs. Looking angry as usual. He figured that she and the bit must've had a fight. Dawn had come marching down the stairs earlier looking triumphant. She has probably pissed Buffy off again.   
  
"Why is everyone watching TV?" She asked harshly.   
  
"What should we be doing?" Asked Molly...or maybe it was Rona.   
  
Buffy paused at that. She had no clue what they should be doing...but she knew it wasn't watching television.   
  
"Never mind." She said finally. The girls were never going to be much help anyway. She knew that now. It was just her. Always alone. On that thought, she turned the corner into the dining room and promptly sat down at the head of the table in her personal huff.   
  
"Slayer?" A familiar voice came from around the same corner as Spike walked into the room and took the seat next to her.   
  
"What do you want?" She began to busy herself with the placemat in front of her.   
  
"Nothing. Just, wanted to see how you were."   
  
"Fine." Simple, one syllable words. Definitely the way to go.   
  
"Good." He matched her syllable count.   
  
"You killed it."   
  
"What you wanted. Right? Or am I just always wrong about what it is you want?"   
  
"Whatever. Demon dead."   
  
"Demons."   
  
"There were two?"   
  
"Yeah. Demon tonight, and demon from about six months ago...me."   
  
"What is that supposed to mean?" She sighed, knew where this was going. To a place that she couldn't handle. Their conversations always hit a place where she stopped thinking about what they were discussing and had to focus only on acting as pissed at him as possible.   
  
"You wanted the demon killed tonight. You wanted my demon killed six months ago. Did both for you."   
  
"Do you want a cookie for it?"   
  
"No."   
  
"Then what do you want? I've been defending you, Spike. To everyone! They were all pissed at me about the chip and I stood up for you! What is the problem now?"   
  
"You're holding back." He said matter-of-factly.   
  
"WHAT?!?" She was really angry now, "I'm the only one who's done a damn thing around here! What are you talking about?"   
  
"Might not be holding back with the demons. But you're holding back with me. You're not ready for me to not be here? Can you fog that up a little more for me, Buffy? I might be starting to make sense of this and god forbid that ever happen around here! You're walking around, showing off the stupid principal to your friends because you think that they'll like him. It's ridiculous. You can bitch all you want at me about holding back with demons, and I'll hear you out and change for you *always*. But you need to stop holding back in the non-demon fighting areas of your life."   
  
"I thought you'd *moved on* Mr. Maturity! What is this...Spike kills a demon and suddenly he get all pushy with Buffy again?"   
  
"No. Just think that if you get to yell at me, I get to yell at you. I'm not angry Buffy, I'm just saying that what you said tonight helped me get back an important part of myself. I'm just trying to help you. I'm not only talking about you and me, either, it's-"   
  
"What? You want me to just stop fighting this fight and get all mushy with you and the gang? Are you forgetting that the end of the world is coming?"   
  
"The potential slayers are watching television, the witch and the whelp are eating fatty foods, and your sister is reading a teeny-bopper magazine on my cot in the basement....Where's the war right now?"   
  
With that, he got up to resume annoying the young girls with his remote control techniques. He knew well enough that she'd stew on what he said all night. Job well done.   
  
THE END. 


End file.
